Tuesday News: Publishing, coloring, pandering, and grieving

Changes coming to Samhain Publishing- Recently Samhain revealed to its editors that there would be changes
occurring to reduce overhead and become more focused.

*Editor Don has been let go.
*Attrition will reduce on-site staff. In May, Samhain will not renew
its lease. It is the intent of the company to go forward remotely.
*Ad buys will cease because they are no longer effective for the company.
*Submissions are closed. Existing authors and agents who work with us
are always welcome to submit books.

Adult Coloring Books Test Grown-Ups’ Ability to Stay Inside the Lines – I see probably two articles on adult coloring books a week right now. And it’s no wonder, given the fact that eight out of the top 20 bestselling books on Amazon are adult coloring books. That’s 40%. Hachette Pratique even published an adult coloring book as “art therapy” in France, because “[i]t has real antistress effects like mindfulness and meditation.” Stress relief for those who buy the books, that is, because some merchants are struggling with collateral demands:

The coloring fad also has a stressful side. Mia Galison, owner of eeBoo Corp., a New York-based designer of educational toys and other products, in August noticed a spike in demand for colored pencils. Since then, her sales of the pencils, including a 24-piece set that retails for about $13, have been three or four times higher than normal, and she keeps running out. It takes about six months between making an order and receiving the pencils from her supplier in Taiwan, so she is struggling to guess how strong demand will be in June. – Wall Street Journal

Whom Do You Write For? ‘Pandering’ Essay Sparks A Conversation – I posted Claire Vaye Watkins’s speech “On Pandering” a few weeks ago, and this is a follow-up conversation between Watkins and Marlon James. It’s worth reading (and listening to) alongside Watkins’s original text, and thinking about the issues they both raise about internalizing authority and the need for myriad voices in the conversations around how social roles and cultural expectations shape the kind of art that is both produced and consumed.

James: It’s true, and when writers of color do an actual “othering” — you know, the first time I heard a gunshot was when I went to a Martin McDonagh play — we must be witness, we must be direct witness or victim of the thing we are writing about. Otherwise, by what authority are we writing about it? … But to come back to the thing about the white man writing about the other, then that becomes perilous … this sort of cultural ventriloquism which is still, still makes a lot of money. Because then I have my friends who are white male writers who feel so skittish about, “But I really want to write about Haiti!” I say, listen, there are a million ways to fail, and most people have, but do it anyway. By the way, every person before you has failed, but do it anyway. Because I think it’s a worthy discussion — there are examples of people pulling it off, as far back as Othello. Do it! – NPR

A Language for Grieving – This short piece by Sonya Posmentier serves as an interesting companion piece to the conversation between Watkins and Jones, in its focus on the question of how black poetry, specifically, makes room for and grief and constructs a language of grieving, and how critical that is in an artistic culture where poets like Kenneth Goldsmith and Vanessa Place are using the imagery and language of violence against black bodies in their work.

This is not to say that in times of grief over racial violence we need only memorial poems of Middle Passage, plantation and burial ground. The plantation is a graveyard, but it was also a place where enslaved people lived — made families, made music and stories, resisted and subsisted. If these recent examples of white appropriations of black experience contain no space for grief, they also yield no space for black joy and innovation, qualities exemplified in the sensory excess of Tonya Foster’s post-9/11 haiku in her collection “A Swarm of Bees in High Court” or the luxurious quatrains navigating the joys of love and travel in Major Jackson’s “Roll Deep.” – New York Times

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isn't sure if she's an average Romance reader, or even an average reader, but a reader she is, enjoying everything from literary fiction to philosophy to history to poetry. Historical Romance was her first love within the genre, but she's fickle and easily seduced by the promise of a good read. She approaches every book with the same hope: that she will be filled from the inside out with something awesome that she didnÊ¼t know, didnÊ¼t think about, or didnÊ¼t feel until that moment. And she's always looking for the next mind-blowing read, so feel free to share any suggestions!

I haven’t published anything since 2011 – a problem I hope to remedy in 2016 – but all three of my titles are at Samhain and this distresses me. It’s always been an ethical, professional company and I’ve been very happy with my editors. I have a lot of faith in Crissy’s business acumen and I hope they can weather this.

BTW, Samhain has been late now and again with paychecks, but for that matter, so is Amazon. In fact Samhain has been better about paying on time lately. As far as I know they’ve NEVER missed a payment to authors, which wasn’t/isn’t true of other publishers that have run into financial troubles

@Kate: Actually, we were alerted to the departure of Don D’Auria from the Samhain Horror side and to the changes in marketing focus.

As to the rest, no, we have not heard about the offices going remote, although in this day and age that makes a lot of sense from a financial perspective. (I’ve never been to the office myself and never planned to go.) The information about limiting submissions to agented-only is news, but, as Kinsey points out, the website hasn’t changed yet and current authors haven’t been informed, so I suspect, if it IS true, your information came from a staff member or editor who was informed in advance and asked to keep the information confidential until the announcement could be made public. (Nice.) Even so, if true, it is not surprising in this day and age since dealing with the ever-growing slush pile can be expensive and time-consuming with little return on investment. If I were an investor, I would say, if true, it IS a solid financial decision, although disappointing to a lot of aspiring authors out there.

@Donna June Cooper: If the submissions has been changed to not closing down completely, but agented-only, well…that strikes me as a bad business decision.

When it comes to digital-first publishers, if I had an agent, they’d be the last place I’d go. There are other epubs which don’t require an agent plus, self-publishing is becoming much easier these days, with a greater return on investment. And if I did have an agent, I’d sign with one who could get me into print and into bricks-and-mortar shops.

I’ve had experiences with epubs that have made me ask them, “If you expect me to do X, Y and Z, what exactly are you doing? What do I need YOU for?” And that’s the key. Authors “need” epubs less and less these days, and the thought of handing over 15% to an agent from an already meagre paycheque? Nope. Not gonna happen.

I know there’s one epub agent I could name, but I never saw the point of that because she subbed to publishers which unagented writers could also sub to. You’re basically throwing away your 15%. Does the possibility of Samhain going agented-only change my view? No. I think the vast majority of writers will just say “Okay, I’ll take my book elsewhere.”

And if submissions are changing to none at all, even agented, well…bye bye Samhain. Nice knowing you.

This is a link to the email that went out to all Samhain authors about the changes announced back in November. It was made public at the same time and the text is printed verbatim on many Horror book blogs.

Reading the email, it looks like some of the above changes – submissions, ad support – might be specific to the Horror line (though obviously not the lease & remote work changes). To me, this makes some sense as Horror is a much smaller genre than Romance, but does anyone know if this applies to the Romance lines as well? I would be much less worried about the company if it’s specific to Horror rather than universal.

As a Samhain author, as far as I know this only applies to the horror line. Samhain has always been a romance publisher, and I’ve been with the company since the beginning. Crissy has always been diligent letting the authors know what’s going on.
Samhain has always closed submissions from time to time, to allow editors to catch up with the slush pile.
A change in the advertising policy makes sense. It’s clear from the email that Samhain has been monitoring the effects of some campaigns, and is moving to what they consider more appropriate. Considering the emergence of newsletters like Bookbub, a review of advertising policies is probably called for.

Disclosure: I work for another e-publisher. But this news is concerning to all of us in the industry. And I’ve been a huge fan of Samhain for years, and reviewed a LOT of their titles before I switched roles and companies.

First, though, trying to position Samhain as a traditional publisher is disingenuous. Paperbacks being available at the same time as ebook doesn’t make it a traditional publisher. It means there’s no windowing for POD (which, honestly, never made sense). Are the books available at retailers other those that handle POD like Amazon or Barnes & Noble? If not, whether we call it digital first or not, it’s still the same thing.

Secondly — and this has been concerning me for months with regard to trends that I’m seeing – relying on newsletters like Bookbub to do marketing is a short-sighted and ultimately disastrous plan. As a consumer, I can tell you that there are some authors I know whose books are consistently discounted, then appear in my Bookbub mails. Why on earth would I buy a book on release day at full price only to see it discounted a few months later? I’m in no hurry.. I have a TBR pile that probably rivals the Eiffel Tower in height were it to be in dead tree format and not digital. Even if you sell a few thousand books, if the book is discounted to $0.99 or $1.99, what is the net on that?

Which brings us to the last point: the rumor of agented-only submissions. Subtract a 15% minimum from what you netted off that Bookbub (plus the listing fee — is your publisher covering it? Because Bookbub’s rates just went up quite a bit, especially for contemporary romance…)

If this is a hobby, then fine, but I have to agree with Scarlett. If authors are looking at this as a business, then I’d have concerns about profitability.

@Cyndy: First, no one claimed Samhain was a “traditional publisher”, but the “digital-first” label is a misnomer as well. Perhaps a different term is appropriate at this point?

Second, the changes to advertising spend at Samhain involved analysis of the return on their investment in banner ads and print ads and so forth. The HORROR newsletter referred to, as I understand it, is just that. A newsletter announcing new releases and a new one where authors can engage and provide short content, not a discounted books email blast like BookBub. I don’t know how the concerns about discounting relate to this discussion.

Third, it is very possible the rumor about closing submissions is, as Lynne points out, a possible reference to a temporary situation while the offices relocate, if that rumor is true. That would make a great deal of sense considering the possible upheaval of a relocation.

Ultimately, based on Samhain’s track record of openness and professionalism, until we know the reality as opposed to the rumors, none of this justifies a great deal of concern on anyone’s part.

If indeed true, the no longer being open to NEW submissions baffles me. Unless they truly do want to slowly size down until they close their doors entirely. Remaining open only to existing authors seems counter intuitive and not a very good business decision. I know for a fact that many existing authors and former authors no longer have plans to continue publishing with them so how do they propose to replace those authors no longer submitting?? The next great thing is always awaiting discovery and who is to say it isn’t submitted to Samhain and they acquire an author that becomes the next phenom? That’s a lot of lost revenue…

They may have closed to submissions before, but maybe they’d have more time for reading if they took on editors rather than getting rid.

And given the current state of affairs in digital-first publishers (which is a phrase I still use because I’ve yet to see books from Samhain in bookshops; according to the authors I’ve spoken to they make next to nothing from print versions of their books), closing to submissions doesn’t sound like “Taking a breather.” It sounds like “Something’s going on.” (Re: Don leaving, being ‘let go’, whatever…that leaves a horrible taste in my mouth given that a day or two before the announcement was made, Samhain was all over social media telling people how much it loved its editors. Oh yeah, right. If you can flip reverse on an editor like that, why should I believe you’ll treat your authors well?)

It’s my firm belief that epubs are not in as strong a position as they used to be because they need us (the writers) more than we need them. Why? Because we can publish without them. And so many publishers expect you to take on the bulk of promo and sometimes even editing, so what exactly do they do for us that we can’t do themselves?

In a publisher as big as Samhain, sheer prestige is a huge factor. But even then…I dunno…something about the state of epubs bothers me right now. As if it’s all getting precarious, even for the big names.

I only have books with Totally Bound these days and it wouldn’t be my choice to stick to one publisher but there are fewer and fewer these days I’d feel safe subbing to. And of course I have my self-published books too, so I’m not putting all my eggs in one basket.

@Maya Banks: As current Samhain authors have said above, Samhain has TEMPORARILY closed the the slush pile before in order to let editors catch up with their backlog. That is the situation here. Samhain is always open to submission from current authors and that is still the case. All current authors have been informed of the situation. There is no indication that Samhain is “closing its doors”, in fact, the official communication to current authors received this week revealed the opposite is true – there are some exciting new changes in the works and Samhain is, as always, exhibiting business acumen in responding to opportunities to reduce unnecessary expenses and increase focus on the important aspects of the business – increasing advertising effectiveness and optimizing sales.

@Scarlett Parrish: Don D’Auria was an editor exclusively on the Samhain Horror side, not the Romance side. He wouldn’t have had any impact on the Romance slush pile at all. There is no way to know why the timing coincided with Samhain’s 10th anniversary celebration, but Samhain released a announcement at the time. The text has been available on various Horror blogs for some time and is linked above.

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